Maxwell
Network Emulators and Protocol Testers

Maxwell^® Network Emulators help network managers, software developers, and testers learn how their products will perform in real-world production networks, including satellites and the Internet.  By intercepting and changing network flows, Maxwell can induce conditions that cause network congestion, slow links, time outs, and many other adverse network conditions.  Network managers can then see the effects on the device or application in order to to find and fix bugs, solve network problems, or learn the limits of device and application performance.

Maxwell not only simulates normal types of internet traffic flow issues, but also helps evaluate the reaction of protocol stacks to normal, stressful, and abnormal network protocol activity.

Maxwell Network Emulators

Maxwell is a tool to help test, validate, and troubleshoot network devices.

Maxwell creates and replicates adverse network conditions in your lab or at your customer sites.

Maxwell is a network impairment system; Maxwell intercepts and modifies packet exchanges – protocols – between network devices.  These modifications may affect the flow of packets — delay, drop, reordering, duplication. Or they may go further and change packet contents or originate new packets.  Maxwell Pro goes even further; it can make stateful changes - changes that take the protocol context into account.

Maxwell may be used to exercise protocols – IP, TCP, UDP – and network applications, including VoIP video, conferencing, SANs, wireless, mobile, VPN, and many more.

Two models: Maxwell Pro and Mini Maxwell^®

The Maxwell family lets you chose the best fit for your requirements.  (See the comparison chart below.)

• Maxwell Pro
• Mini Maxwell

Maxwell At A Glance

All members of the Maxwell family support these features:

• Quick and easy set up in less than fifteen minutes
• Operates at Layer 2, like a bridge or "bump on the wire."  No special routing configuration of test devices is required
• Can use packet header fields to classify traffic into concurrent, multiple flows for accurate and realistic network traffic emulations
• Can apply different impairment settings to each direction of packet flow.
• Can change settings on the fly without reloading or restarting — saves your time.
• Enhances regression testing by saving and reloading config files and logging data
• May be controlled from anywhere on your network
• Supports standard impairments (drop, delay, jitter [with or without reordering], duplication), statistical distributions, and rate limitation
• Scriptable

Maxwell Pro Advanced Features

• Protocol impairments, not just packet impairments — intelligently modify the protocol operation for vulnerability and robustness testing
• User selectable graphical, command line, or script-driven interface for maximum flexibility
• Sophisticated rate limiter that supports both rate limitation and link emulation
• "Alter" impairment supports easy rewriting of packet fields (and recomputation of multiple levels of protocol checksums) without the need for a plug-in
• Bit corruption
• Pre-defined scenarios for a range of common occurrences on a production network.  Point and click to select a noisy network, a congested link, a slow DNS server, etc.
• Pre-defined scenarios for bandwidth limited applications.  Point and click to select from dial-up to ADSL to Cable TV to T3 or faster.  Or chose geosynchronous satellite, low earth polar orbit satellite, etc.
• Select the scenario closest to your application and modify as needed
• Control Maxwell Pro scripts written in Java, Perl, Python, or Bash (shell)
• Separate traffic into multiple flows based on header fields at network layers 2, 3, and 4
• Plugin API allows for user written impairments; fully programmable in C or C++
• Supports IPv4 and IPv6
• Supports IEEE 802.1Q tagged VLANs
• Supports gigabit ethernet and jumbograms
• ITU G.1050 emulation
• User selectable statistical distributions
• Automation of parameters to allow changes to occur over time without operator intervention

More Control, More Accuracy, More Realistic Network Emulations

Standard Impairments

Maxwell — both Maxwell Pro and Mini Maxwell — perform standard impairments to network traffic:

• Drop/loss
• Duplication
• Delay (latency)
• Jitter (variable delay) with optional reordering
• Rate limitation
• Content alteration (bitwise or by protocol field)
• Bursts of any or all all of these

Protocol Impairments

Maxwell Pro impairs protocols.  A Few Examples:

• Change the source IP address to all ones (broadcast)
• Append random or other data to the end of a protocol message with or without adjusting content length fields and recomputing protocol checksums
• Create IPv4 or IPv6 fragments in almost any pattern or order and with or without missing or overlapping fragments

Use these protocol impairments to test the ability of the destination device to respond properly to malformed and/or unexpected packets; the user can measure the robustness and vulnerability of the device to security threats.

Stateful Impairments — Test More Code Paths

Maxwell Pro can keep track of the conversation between two network devices over a period of time.  At a user chosen points in the protocol conversation, Maxwell Pro can introduce an impairment to test if the receiving device responds correctly.

Ensuring secure TCP/IP compliance through vulnerability and robustness testing

TCP/IP in Mission Critical Applications

From operating systems to smart phones, to automobiles, to web servers, to factory floors, more and more products and systems depend on robust, high-quality Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) implementations for network interconnection.

Software developers and testers of TCP/IP-based products must be certain that their implementations have properly, correctly, and completely implemented TCP/IP and can withstand, all variations of network traffic, including external attacks.

Conformance testing is not sufficient; quality implementations require the kind of susceptibility testing that Maxwell can provide.

TCP/IP Test Environment

The TCP/IP Test Environment in Maxwell Pro contains hundreds of unique tests that ensure TCP/IP compliance through vulnerability and robustness testing, with tests for both IPv4 and IPv6:

• TCP Connection Setup — TCP states CLOSED, LISTEN, SYN- RECEIVED, SYN-SENT. Test the ability to handle malformed or illegal sequence and acknowledgment numbers during the remainder of the connection
• TCP Options Processing — insertion and modification of options during the TCP connection set up sequences
• IPv4 and IPv6 fragmentation tests, options processing tests, and framing tests
• And many, many more.  For example, here is a screen shot of one of the IPv4 Fragmentation tests:

Plugin Architecture

Maxwell Pro can be extended through the use of plug-in modules.

Several plug-ins are provided:

• Packet resequencing — - For example, TCP ACKs could be resequenced from an order of A-B-C-D-E to order C-A-E-B-D.
• ITU G.1050
• TCP Congestion Avoidence - ACK reordering in conjunction with rising and falling patterns of delay and packet loss.
• Periodic Link Failure
• Radio Communication Handoff
• Noisy Factory Floor
• Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) Test Suite
• Domain Name System (DNS) Delays
• Network Storage Emulation
• Geosynchronous Satellite Link
• Accumulate and Release (Dam Bursting)
• And many more.

Users may write their own plugins in C or C++.  Working example code is provided.  Everything needed to construct and compile plugins is on the Maxwell Pro.

If Maxwell is more than you need, consider Mini Maxwell
Mini Maxwell — Easy to Use, Portable, Network Emulator

Simple Setup and Web Interface

Attach Mini Maxwell at any point in the network without any special configuration.  From a web interface, point and click to introduce bandwidth limited conditions or network impairments.  Then observe the behavior on applications and devices.  In this way, you can quickly and efficiently determine how resilient your product is to the conditions that occur on real-world networks.

Changes occur when submitted - there is no need to restart.

Settings may be saved onto the user's own computer and restored when needed.

Scripting and Autonomous Operation

The current settings may be saved into Mini Maxwells non volatile memory so that they are automatically restored when Mini Maxwell is powered-up.  This facilitates field operation where it would be inconvenient to have a keyboard, mouse, monitor.

Mini Maxwell may be scripted from another computer using a spreadsheet of a Python program.

Packet Classification Filters

Mini Maxwell is able to classify packets on the basis of many IP, UDP, and TCP header fields.

Traffic may be classified into as many as five bands in each direction (ten bands total.)

Different impairments may be imposed onto each band

Multiple filters may be simultaneously active.

Users may create their own filters.

Filter changes occur when submitted, on the fly, no need to restart

Multiple Bands

With Mini Maxwell the user may impose several kinds of impairments on up to five different traffic flows in each direction (ten bands total.)

Impairment changes occur when submitted, on the fly, no need to restart

To support A-B comparison testing a bypass-mode allows all impairments to be turned off and on using a mouse click.

"Green" Energy Efficient

• Compact, portable, lightweight package — no moving parts
• Power draw under five watts

How is Mini Maxwell different from Maxwell Pro?

Find problems before anyone else does

The Internet is becoming more complex and users are becoming more demanding.  Maxwell can help you discover hidden problems that could reveal themselves at the worst possible moments.  With Maxwell you can find problems before your customers do.  Maxwell can save time, money, and your reputation.

For More Information: 800.459.9817 (toll free in the United States) Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Web: www.iwl.com

InterWorking Labs, Inc. PO Box 66190 Scotts Valley, California 95067 Voice 831.460.7010 Fax 831.401.2320

Copyright© 2011.  InterWorking Labs, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. InterWorking Labs, Maxwell, and Mini Maxwell are trademarks of InterWorking Labs, Inc.